The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods for automatically generating an auxiliary melody (additional notes) corresponding to a given main melody, and more particularly an improved auxiliary melody generation apparatus and method capable of automatically generating and imparting an auxiliary melody (additional notes) to a main melody even where no chord progression is given.
With the widespread pervasion of personal computers, it has recently become possible for almost everyone to freely enjoy music in the form of computer music that uses a computer to, for example, perform a musical instrument, compose a music piece, arrange a music piece or synthesize a tone color. Particularly, in the field of computer-based automatic performance, there have been known auxiliary melody generation apparatus which are designed to, when an automatic performance is to be executed on the basis of a desired main melody selected by a user, automatically generate an auxiliary melody (additional notes) corresponding to the main melody. By the auxiliary melody generation apparatus thus automatically generating an auxiliary melody (additional notes) corresponding to a desired main melody, it is possible to execute, in a simplified manner, a harmony performance, such as a duet where a single auxiliary melody is imparted to the main melody or a trio where two auxiliary melodies are imparted to the main melody.
Generally, the conventional auxiliary melody generation apparatus are designed to automatically generate additional notes on the basis of individual melody notes constituting a selected main melody and chords corresponding to the main melody and impart, to the main melody, the thus-generated additional notes as an auxiliary melody. Thus, for impartment of the auxiliary melody, it is necessary to give the chords in addition to the main melody; that is, the conventional auxiliary melody generation apparatus are unable to impart an auxiliary melody unless chords are given. Among approaches for providing a solution to such an inconvenience is to constantly detect chords from the main melody and automatically generate additional notes on the basis of the detected chords. This approach is, however, disadvantageous in that there would be required a more complicated program for automatically generating an auxiliary melody and a greater storage capacity would be required for storing the complicated auxiliary-melody generating program.
Further, because the conventional auxiliary melody generation apparatus are designed only to impart additional notes to melody notes in such a manner that the additional notes match chords corresponding to the main melody, the imparted additional notes tend to present an unsmooth flow of notes (note-to-note connections), so that human listeners listening only to the auxiliary melody (additional notes) would feel musical unnaturalness and unsmoothness.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an auxiliary melody generation apparatus and method which can automatically generate an auxiliary melody (or additional notes) corresponding to a main melody without requiring chords.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an auxiliary melody generation apparatus and method which can generate an auxiliary melody (or additional notes) having natural note-to-note connections and an enhanced musical completeness or perfection.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned objects, the present invention provides an auxiliary melody generation apparatus which comprises: a melody information supply device that supplies melody information of a given main melody; and a processor device coupled with the melody information supply device. The processor device is adapted to: classify melody notes into particular notes and other notes than the particular notes, on the basis of the melody information supplied by the melody information supply device and in accordance with a predetermined criterion; and decide additional notes with respect to the classified particular notes and the other notes in accordance with different criteria set for the classified particular notes and the other notes. Thus, an auxiliary melody is composed of the additional notes decided by the processor device.
For each of the classified particular notes, the processor device may decide an additional note having a predetermined musical interval from the particular note, and for each of the other notes than the particular notes, the processor device may decide an additional note having a musical interval determined on the basis of a flow of at least one of the main melody and the auxiliary melody. The processor device may classify the melody notes into the particular notes and the other notes than the particular notes, on the basis of at least one of a downbeat note, note near a downbeat position and long-duration note.
According to the present invention, a given melody notes are classified into particular notes and other notes than the particular notes in accordance with a predetermined criterion. Additional notes are decided with respect to the classified particular notes and the other notes in accordance with different criteria set for the classified particular notes and the other notes. For example, for the particular notes, additional notes are decided which have predetermined musical intervals from the particular notes, so as to generate additional notes with more emphasis on good sounding with the particular notes. For the other melody notes than the particular notes, on the other hand, additional notes are decided which have musical intervals determined on the basis of a flow of at least one of the main and auxiliary melodies, so as to generate additional notes with more emphasis on note-to-note connections of a generated auxiliary melody. This way, it is possible to generate an auxiliary melody from the main melody without necessarily requiring chords. The auxiliary melody that is musically natural can be imparted to the main melody.
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the apparatus invention as discussed above but also as a method invention. Also, the present invention may be arranged and implemented as a software program for execution by a processor such as a computer or DSP, as well as a storage medium storing such a program. Further, the processor used in the present invention may comprise a dedicated processor with dedicated logic built in hardware, not to mention a computer or other general-purpose type processor capable of running a desired software program.
While the embodiments to be described herein represent the preferred form of the present invention, it is to be understood that various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the present invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims.